TBLA.
Speaking of our share repurchases, I would also like to provide an update on our share buyback and debt repayment programs. The share buyback program was initiated on June 1, and as of December 30, we had repurchased over 15 million shares at an average price of $3.62 for total repurchases of $55.1 million. The average repurchase price of $3.62 represented a return of approximately 30% based on our closing price on Monday.
Today, we are also announcing a new share buyback authorization of $100 million that replaces our former buyback plan, which was largely exhausted. We are fortunate enough to be able to fund our organic growth investments from our operating cash flow. Given that, we believe that at current valuations, the best use of our free cash flow is the buyback shares. To the extent that we have additional cash to deploy, we intend to pay down our long-term debt.
We did this in October of 2023, in fact, when we voluntarily prepaid another $50 million of our long-term debt, bringing the total debt that we have voluntarily prepaid to $141 million. As always, both the share repurchase program and the debt paydown are contingent upon the availability of sufficient working capital.
As an Israeli company, we are also required to obtain Israeli court approval for share repurchases. Also of note, we will be filing a general-purpose shelf in the coming days. We consider it good corporate hygiene for a company at our stage to have a general-purpose shelf on file. Given we believe our stock is a great value at current levels and have announced a new buyback authorization today, we obviously do not intend to issue new shares at this time. I just wanted to make that -- make sure that was clear. |
